Retirement Age being scrapped

[torledo]

I'm sure you are right, by the time I'm due to reture my opinions my well shift. But right now I still don't see it has fair placing an extra burden on society because I made the wrong financial choices. If I put all my money into buying my home and none into a pension pot that could make living their affordable then why should society has a whole bail me out? I have money tied up in the home I bought I should releae some of it to pay my way.

 

exactly. my point is that the govt. should prioritize based on the wider need, rather than focusing benefits and entitlements on certain demographics. There just isn't the housing supply to justify policies which state that the public purse should ensure that no retiree need sell their home to fund retirement expenses.

 

i take a similar view toward inheritance tax, i believe it should apply to the 'family home' so that there isn't this perpetuation of the protection of inherited wealth. if you need to sell a property to pay an IHT bill so be it. If you need to sell a property to fund living for a lot longer then so be it. I don't see why the state should go that extra mile to protect such assets. ofcourse maybe i will feel very differently should i ever be put in such a position, but i certainly wouldn't expect any govt. to make it easy for me via it's policies so i can avoid selling up.

[tmcd35]

When people retire, they receive universal benefits which are taxable along with any other income they have from savings, pension income from employment etc. Many pensioners don't claim all they are entitled to, sometimes because they are ignorant of their entitlement, sometimes it's pride... but at least universal benefits payable to all ensures that the money reaches people that need it most & the Govt can claw back some of it that is paid to wealthy people who don't need it via taxation

 

I love this example, it pretty much makes my point for me.

 

At one end of the scale we have the government paying multimillion pensions the basic state pension. "Hey Mr Multimillionaire, here's some extra money you really don't need. But hey I don't mind giving to you because I'm gonna take 40% right back again and that'll make fair. Don't worry you keep the other 60%, I know you don't need it - just take it!"

 

And on the other end of the scale we have poor little Doris who gets the basic state pension and that is her whole income. She can't afford to live but hey there are other benefits available to her if she'd only apply for them. Shame she understands the benefits system as well as I do and finds it very difficult to work out what she can apply for and how she does it.

 

And we call this a fair system?

[torledo]

 

And on the other end of the scale we have poor little Doris who gets the basic state pension and that is her whole income. She can't afford to live but hey there are other benefits available to her if she'd only apply for them. Shame she understands the benefits system as well as I do and finds it very difficult to work out what she can apply for and how she does it.

 

 

it's a shame that so many people don't claim what they are entitled to, but i can't see the current boomers being so backward in coming forward when it comes to claiming what's theirs. Not that they'll have to worry too much about the fuel allowance, pension credit and council tax benefit.... such forward planners don't leave stuff like retirement to chance. or the state for that matter...LOL

[broc]

I love this example, it pretty much makes my point for me.

 

At one end of the scale we have the government paying multimillion pensions the basic state pension. "Hey Mr Multimillionaire, here's some extra money you really don't need. But hey I don't mind giving to you because I'm gonna take 40% right back again and that'll make fair. Don't worry you keep the other 60%, I know you don't need it - just take it!"

 

And on the other end of the scale we have poor little Doris who gets the basic state pension and that is her whole income. She can't afford to live but hey there are other benefits available to her if she'd only apply for them. Shame she understands the benefits system as well as I do and finds it very difficult to work out what she can apply for and how she does it.

 

And we call this a fair system?

 

I don't think it is a fair system either; I was stating the facts as I understand it, based upon the experience of my elderly father, who worked all his life, paid into his company pension scheme and receives £4 per week company pension on top of his state pension.

 

He's too proud to claim, but things like winter fuel & free TV licence make a big difference to him. It took a lot of persuading to get him to claim for housing benefit & council tax relief, even though it is his right.

 

I would like to see more fairness in our benefits system too, but to pick up on torledos comments about current baby boomers not being backward in coming forward I have no intention of being a martyr by refusing to claim what I am entitled to when I retire.

 

I have seen my taxes wasted by successive governments on all manner of hair-brained schemes, I have seen plenty of evidence where I work of Government initiatives that have bred a culture of state benefit dependency where once there were proud working communities.

[teejay]

Right, I'm a bit drunk but will try to reply, real ale pub with a blues band, my kind of night

National Insurance was initially set up as an insurance policy to provide free health care and a state pension to all, no matter what their financial situation.

The problem is, progressive governments have used National Insure as a tax, rather than as an insurance for the above provisions. Therefore the money isn't there, plus the tax raid on private pensions by the last two governments have made things dramatically worse.

So, how do we get round this? Well, in my opinion, short term whilst we are in this financial crisis, not much. Long term, we've got to start using National Insurance as it was intended and put it aside to cover state pension cost and pay a decent pension rather than all these stupid top ups. We've also got to stop doing tax raids on private pensions, so that people see the benefit from their private pensions.

 

Right, I'm going to pass out, it's taken me far too long to type this and correct the typos, hic....

[leco]

[slightly tongue in cheek] If it takes real ale to make people talk sense - maybe Dick and Nave should be taken to a real ale pub every night.

[jamesb]

It looks like within the private sector companies will still be able to work their own compulsory retirement policies - Scrapped retirement age will live on in private sector, says expert | Pinsent Masons LLP

 

It's not going to be an easy transition no matter what happens, but changes never really are.

[torledo]

An employer can still justify a mandatory retirement age and use justifications like wanting to balance the workforce and provide opportunities for younger employees

 

sounds perfectly reasonable to me.

[gizmo2005]

we are all assuming that state pension will still be around when we reach that Golden Age, on a personal oppinion i would rather invest my money into a property that i know would still be there when i reach that age. this wouyld be my safty net. If (which i am) paying national insurance up until the golden age why shouldnt i receive a state pension and why should i get taxed on this!!! i have been taxed all my life and unfortunatly when im gone i will still have to pay tax on the inheritance that i leave my children... i understand that we have to pay national insurance towards a pension pot but to be taxed on the pension pot that i am building seems stupid...

 

this is why i have invested into property because i just cant really rely on a systems where people who are multimillionairs still receive a state pension and get taxed and people who are at the lower end of the scale get there state pension but no additional help(and get Taxed). we have to plan accordingly and create our own safty net... and not rely on a pot that might not be hear in the future...

[NikChillin]

By taking away the compusory retirement age people who can't afford to retire can continue to work rather than retiring in poverty. Nobody wants to work until they drop but bills need paying.

[beeswax]

Here's someone who makes sense -

 

Thank goodness BP isn't part of the public sector. Tony Hayward might have ended up with a gold-plated pension.

Simon Cleverley

 

The original can be seen here - Letters: Humble or bumble? | From the Guardian | The Guardian